Let the Embarrassment Now Commence

I was over at Mir's today and she posted some pictures of the old days of scary hair and big glasses. Being that I had to go through those days as well while I was growing up, I thought it would be fun to join in and post my own, so here goes, let the embarrassment now commence:

Scary Black Glasses
Originally uploaded by ladyrhowan.

Here I am @ 6 years old in my big black framed glasses

I wanted to be Hayley Mills?
Originally uploaded by ladyrhowan.

Here is where my hair decided that it didn't want to be straight in any way, shape, or form, any longer.

Hair Progression
Originally uploaded by ladyrhowan.

At the top is 5th grade; puberty hits and hair gets scared. Next is 6th grade and the hair has gone full on freak out. By 8th grade I gave up on trying look good. I put the glasses back on.

OMG
Originally uploaded by ladyrhowan.

Circa 1991. I dare anyone to beat the freakiness of this hair, glasses and pants combo! Even my own daughter wants to get away as quickly as possible. LOL.

Recently Reading, Watching, Listening...

I thought I would try out a once a month post of the books, movies, and music I have read, watched, and listened to over the past month. I figure a monthly thing will be easier for me. So here goes:
January 2006:

Books
1. Harry Potter #4 (I know I am way behind...I took 3 years off because I am surrounded by him everyday at work)
2. Her Mother's Daughter by Linda Carroll
3. I Don't Know What I Want, But I know It's Not This by Julie Jansen
4. Night by Elie Wiesel

Movies ( I love You Netflix!)
1. Duran Duran Live From London
2. The God Who Wasn't There
3. Manor House
4. March of the Penguins
5. The 4400

Music (I use a Dell DJ 20)
1. Journey
2. The Smiths
3. Hall & Oats
4. Duran Duran
5. Various 1970's

I think that completes the lists for this month. I could throw in Video Games, but I've only been playing Sims 2 sporadically, most of my other free time is spent on school work. :)

New Template

After much searching I finally found a template I really like. I picked it up from Free Blogger Templates There are some very nice templates there. The templates aren't "busy" as with most other template places I've seen. The instructions are easy to understand if you have any experience with HTML, luckily I used to hand code my old website so it wasn't that difficult. The argyle suits my studious nature. :)

Blog Template

I got a comment a couple days ago that was more a question than comment. I decided not to accept the comment, but instead just post about it so that I can answer as best I can for more than one person. I know from experience how frustrating it is to work with these templates. I'll try my best to answer the question. Essentially she wanted to know how I got my template posted. If I were to try to do the same thing again right now, I would have to start from scratch. I just spent the past 3 hours trying to figure out how to post my own template (as you can see it hasn't worked yet). I am great with the design aspect; put me in front of PhotoShop or PaintShop Pro, and I'll come up with some beautiful designs; I can even make a nice web site, but throw all those Blogger tags in and my brain goes dead. Really what you have to do, once you have your new template code, is to read through your current code to see where to copy and paste the code into. That is how I work it, just reading the code and copy and pasting where appropriate; also lots of previewing until I get it right.
She also wanted to know if putting up a new template would erase pictures and whatnot already on the blog. Well, if the picture is part of a post, in the main area, no; but you will want to save all your links and other postings from the nav bar, this will be erased and you will have to copy and paste what you want there again. The best thing to do is read the help files on the Blogger Dashboard. Hopefully this was helpful in some way.

In other news: My vacation is almost over. It started out great. I got to help my sis move into her new place and got to spend some great quality time with her and my nieces. It was a really nice weekend, and I am so happy to have her living so much closer. I've spent the past few days putting some order into my own place. Aaron and I have so much stuff in our little one bedroom apartment, it feels very congested and stifling. I've managed to keep the livingroom and kitchen clean for two whole days in a row, lol. We'll see what happens when I am back to the daily grind of work and school. I have not done much else. I feel like I need another week or two. I've been watching a lot of Digital Life TV with Aaron; cool show, I love Robert and Patrick. I still miss Tech TV.
What I have gathered from my week off from work is that I really love being at home, a lot. I love having the time to keep the place in order, I love having the time to myself, I love being free to do what I want when I want. If I could figure out how to go back to part-time work while supplementing my income with something online, I'd be a happy camper. First I'll have to figure out that CSS stuff.

Sleeeeeeep

I need sleep!!! OMG! I need sleep!!! I'm running late this morning, because I started falling back to sleep!!! after my alarm went off. It's freezing cold and I've had about 3 hours of sleep and I have to be at a meeting in about an hour. And, I'm sick again. Gah!!!

Good Days Are Nice Surprises

When most everyday is an uphill battle; when just getting out of bed and going about your day is a huge struggle, and everyday just plain sucks; it feels like a nice surprise when you have a good day. I had a good day today. I had a good day at work today. Now, I will go knock on wood and hope that the rest of my day goes as well.

Two Things That Don't Go Together

Vodka and house cleaning. The vodka was great; the house cleaning never got done. I have a horrible hang-over. Two other things that don't go together: hang-over and home work. I've got lots of homework to do today. Ugh!

Current Playlist

Had too much fun downloading music today...Here's what I am currently listening too.

December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
It's Still Rock-n-Roll To Me - Billy Joel
Hot Child In The City - Nick Gilder and the Time Machine
Looks Like We Made It - Barry Manilow
Follow You, Follow Me - Genisis
Wild World - Cat Stevens
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer

Did I mention my eclectic (or just plain strange) taste in music ;)

I think tonight will be a good night for some vodka and house cleaning.

Wireless Wonders

Aaron just got me a wireless broadband router!!! Finally, I have the freedom to go anywhere in the apartment without wires!!! With my laptop, that is. ;) Can you tell how happy I am? :)

Back to Work

Christmas and New Years are over; my daughter is on her way back to her dad's; my sick time off from work is over; and now it's time to go back to work. I am filled with dread. I'm still sick and I didn't get the "time alone" I needed to re-energize. I still hate my job and I just can't figure out how to get over it and move on. Maybe this will be the year I finally make the big changes in my life that I keep putting off; we'll see.

New Template

What do you think?
I think it's a very pretty background. It may take some time for me to get used to, and it will do until I can figure out how to create a template on my own. I had my own web site for years and can design pretty much any background, but with all the coding involved with the blog, I'm feeling a little behind and unsure of how to proceed. I spent the day just being very confused and finally gave up and got a template from somewhere else.
It's back to work tomorrow after having been off due to sickness for the past 5 days. Even though I will not miss the sickness, I will certainly miss the free time. I was really starting to feel better; more relaxed. Oh well.

I did it!

Well, got my Flickr account started and got pics of my funky xmas tree up over there on the side. My daughter and I were decorating, we didn't have enough lights, or ornaments, or anything else, and once we got the white stuff up and stood back, we died laughing. It looked like white trash xmas. SO the white stuff came off...

I've managed to get most of my homework done, now it's off to work on getting a new background up here.

Sickness Sucks

I've been sick with bronchitis this past week. Yesterday I was starting to feel better, so I decided not to take to cough syrup with codeine when I went to bed...bad decision. I feel horrible this morning. I am achy all over and I got no sleep last night.
I was trying to get pictures up yesterday, but can't figure out the new HELLO format so, I am going to switch to Flckr; I just have to sort through the pics and resize them and hopefully today I'll have them up, if I can get some homework done first.
I had a nice two week break from school and now it's back to the grindstone. Just a few more months and I'm done....